ConVal track team shows strength at lone home meet
Published: 04-24-2025 12:03 PM |
Records fell at the ConVal track team’s only home meet of the season Tuesday as the Cougars showcased why they have their eyes on postseason hardware this spring.
“I’ve been here for four years and we’ve had a lot of great athletes come in, but I think things are just lining up just right,” ConVal head coach Cindy McLaughlin said.
The Cougars are fresh off a winter track season that saw ConVal break numerous records and win several state titles, and they’ve rolled right through into the spring with momentum. On Tuesday, they got event wins from Kendrick Edwards (100m, 400m, long jump), Ross Stephens (200m) and Walter Stephens (800m), as well as both relays on their way to a first-place finish for their boys’ team – and that was without defending state champion William Simard running his usual 3,200m race.
McLaughlin said her boys have what it takes to take a top-three team finish at the NHIAA Division II championships, set for May 31 at Sanborn.
“With the elite runners and then the really good supporting cast, yeah, I think it should be top three,” McLaughlin said. “If that’s what they want, and you stack it just so, and the relays are strong. we can do it. Absolutely.”
Simard, Stephens and Edwards all won state championships in the winter and are primed to do so again this spring. Simard broke the school record in the 1,600m at Nashua North Saturday with a 4:18.11. Stephens set the school record in the 400m (49.54) at the same meet, and Edwards, who already holds the school records in the 100m and 200m added another on Tuesday, breaking the 18-year-old long jump mark with his leap of 21-feet, 1-inch
“They do all the right stuff, they should be state champions,” McLaughlin said. “We don’t want to jump the gun on that, but they’re kind of in a league of their own.”
Simard is headed to Division I UMass-Lowell next fall, and Edwards to Division I Bryant.
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Tuesday, the Cougars also got top-three finishes from Varya Nikitina (third, 100m hurdles), Griffin Schultz (second, 400m; second, high jump), Whitney Adair (second, 800m), Joshua Decker (second, 3,200m; second, triple jump), Norah McNamara (second, 3,200m), Morly Johnson (third, discus) and Amelia Blanchette (third, javelin). The ConVal girls finished fourth as a team.
Mascenic and Wilton-Lyndeborough were among the seven teams at the ConVal Invitational Tuesday. The Vikings, as per usual, showed off their distance prowess, as Kaitlin O’Shea won the 800m, Erin O’Shea was first in the 3,200m and Derek Somero and Dylan Callahan went 1-2 in the boys’ 1,600m.
Paisley Silva had a good day for WLC, finishing fourth in the girls’ 1,600m and eighth in the 100m hurdles. Sydney Beam took sixth in the girls’ 400m, while Jaden Ray was 10th in the boys’ 200m and Ben Jacob was 10th in javelin throw and 11th in shot put.
ConVal is at Coe-Brown’s Black Bear Invitational on Saturday. The Vikings are in action next at Souhegan on May 2, and the Warriors go to Milford May 10.